Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 26, 2024; 12(21): 4626-4631
Published online Jul 26, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i21.4626
Survey on hospice care attitude of family members of advanced cancer patients at different ages
Xiao-Li Liu, Lun-Lan Li
Xiao-Li Liu, Department of Oncology, Hefei Third People's Hospital, Hefei 230000, Anhui Province, China
Xiao-Li Liu, Department of Nursing, School of Nursing, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230000, Anhui Province, China
Lun-Lan Li, Department of Human Resources, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230000, Anhui Province, China
Author contributions: Liu XL contributed to writing original draft, conceptualization, resources, supervision, methodology, formal analysis and validation; Li LL contributed to the investigation, software, data curation, writing review and editing.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Hefei BOE Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent before study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lun-Lan Li, MNurs, Associate Chief Nurse, Department of Personnel Office, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218 Jixi Road, Shushan District, Hefei 230000, Anhui Province, China. liusanyyuan@163.com
Received: April 24, 2024
Revised: May 20, 2024
Accepted: June 6, 2024
Published online: July 26, 2024
Processing time: 68 Days and 0.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Hospice care plays an important role in improving the quality of life of advanced cancer patients, but controversy remains over whether age affects the attitudes of family members toward hospice care.

AIM

To investigate the attitudes of family members of advanced cancer patients of different ages toward hospice care.

METHODS

The study participants were 175 family members of patients with advanced cancer from January 2020 and October 2022. The participants were divided into youth (< 40 years, n = 65), middle-aged (40–60 years, n = 59), and elderly (> 60 years, n = 51) groups. Researchers investigated and compared the degree of awareness regarding hospice care, attitudes, and whether the family members of patients would choose hospice care.

RESULTS

Among the family members of 175 patients, approximately 28% (49/175) were aware of hospice care. Awareness of hospice care, the proportion of hospice care acceptance and adaptation attitudes, and the proportion of those who chose hospice care in the youth group were higher in the middle-aged and elderly groups (P < 0.05). No statistically significant difference was found in these three indicators between the middle-aged and elderly groups (P > 0.05). Hospice care was chosen mainly to relieve pain and reduce unnecessary treatment, whereas the reasons for not choosing hospice care were mainly distrust and ethical concerns.

CONCLUSION

The family members of patients with advanced cancer had relatively low awareness of hospice care, while youth had a higher awareness of hospice care, acceptance, and adaptation attitudes, and were more willing to choose hospice care.

Keywords: Hospice care; Attitude; Advanced cancer; Family members; Age; Awareness; Acceptance

Core Tip: Hospice care refers to providing physical, psychological, spiritual, and humanistic care services for end-stage or elderly patients before their death, which can help alleviate their pain and improve their quality of life. However, the family members of patients generally lack awareness of hospice care, and age is an important factor affecting their attitude towards hospice care. We found that compared to middle-aged and elderly family members, young family members have a higher awareness, acceptance, and compliance attitude towards hospice care, and are more willing to choose hospice care.